


Rainbow

by rebeccasilverr



Series: Furthermore/Whichwood Character Studies [1]
Category: Furthermore Series - Tahereh Mafi
Genre: Body Image, Confidence, Friendship, Gen, Self Esteem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 20:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14386509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebeccasilverr/pseuds/rebeccasilverr
Summary: Even now that she barely cared what others saw when they looked at her, she couldn’t deny what a pleasing thought that was: Alice Queensmeadow, the most colourful of them all. Take that.





	Rainbow

Alice Alexis Queensmeadow could barely remember the last occasion on which she’d felt self-conscious about her appearance. She had long since come to terms with the fact that while she looked different, her mind and heart were what mattered, and not her skin. And Whichwood was by far an easier place to blend than Ferenwood, where she'd been the bleached coral to everybody’s tropical-fish-brightness. In Whichwood, there were all sorts of strange-looking individuals. Laylee and her eccentric Mordeshoor costume, for one, or Benyamin, whose body was shelter to at least twenty creepy-crawlies at any given time.

In the excitement of the place, and with everyone else’s oddities, she’d nearly forgotten her own body image concerns. It helped too that she was hidden in layer of cloaks most all the time in these wintery months, and she’d taken to painting pomegranate juice through her hair until the top of her head looked like a rich red-purple sweet. Oh, not because she had a particular quarrel with her hair anymore, but because she wished to make a statement.

The only obvious snow-whiteness of her was in what little of her wrists and ankles showed, and in the skin of her face, excepting her eyes.

She had coloured more just slightly as she’d gotten older (or maybe it was the weather, or a slight change in her diet, who really knew?) Her eyes had turned a lovely cinnamon, and her hair had a few faint strawberry-blond streaks. She was still a great deal paler than anyone else she’d met but for Laylee when the poor girl had been ill and so terribly drained of colour and will. Alice wasn’t the dim, sickly pale her dear friend had been, though, she was that bright whiteness of the sunlight’s reflection on a book page or fresh canvas, the kind that made you squint and shield your eyes against it’s radiance.

An artist, she’d of course learnt that you only needed to spin a colour wheel at pace to discover that white was really every colour at once. She hadn’t thought too deeply about it at the time, to be honest. She'd just wanted to get to the practical part of her lesson. If you were to think technically about colour theory, though -- and she's just pointing out the facts here -- Alice was really a rainbow. 

Even now that she barely cared what others saw when they looked at her, she couldn’t deny what a pleasing thought that was: Alice Queenmeadow, the most colourful of them all. Take that.


End file.
